Distributor testing apparatus



Sept. 1, 1936. G. H. ALLEN 2,052,688 7 DISTRIBUTOR TESTING APPARATUS v Filed April 11, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 [N VENTOR A TTORNEYS Sept. 1,1936. 7 I G H ALLEN 2,052,688

DISTRIBUTOR TESTING APPARATUS Filed April 11, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Sept. 1, 1936 PATENT OFF'IQE 2,052,688 DISTRIBUTOR TESTING APPARATUS Gerald 11. Allen, Kalamaio'o;Micli jassignor to Allen: Electric Mich;

& Equipment Cm, Kalamazoo;

Application Apr-i111, 1934, Serial No. 720,039

4Glaims.

This invention has for its objects: I

First, to provide. an improved apparatus. for testing the breaker mechanisms of distributors 01: internal combustion engines. I I I Second, to'providesuch an apparatusin which a neon tube may be used most effectively to determine the length of time that the dwell of the cam of the breaker energizes the primary coil of the spark coil of an engine and the timing of the making and breaking without any error that results from viewing such. an apparatus at an angle when the neon. tube is revolved in ordinary apparatus of this sort. I I II 'Ihird, to provide such an apparatus with improved means for energizing the neon tube."

Fourth, to provide suchan apparatus with cheaper, more eficientmeans for energizing the neon tube that may be: from ordinary volt, alternating current. I I II I Other objects and advantages pertaining to details of construction. and operation will appear from the description toiollow. A preferredembodiment of my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: I I Fig. lv is a. front view of my apparatus with a breaker mechanism in place for testing. II

Fig. 2 is a} view partly in section taken. on. line 2-2 ofFig.3. II II, II I I Fig. 3 isaplan viewpartly in section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1. II I I I I I Fig. l is a View showing the pattern made by the revolving neon light when my apparatus i s inoperation testing the breaker mechanism for an eight-cylinder car.

Fig. 5 is awiring diagram. I I .Fig. 6 is a. view similar to Fig. 4. showing. the pattern for a four-cylinder car. I

Fig. 7 is a. detail sectional view of the neon tube and its mounting. p H II I. Fig; 8 is. a protractionring for use in testing a particular engine. I

Referring. to the drawings, l is the base havin 'journaledltherein an upright shaft 2' supportedin ball bearings 3 and having atits upper end a clutchfd adapted. to engage and drive the breaker mechanism to be. tested, shown: here at 5 The breaker'mechanism is supported in a bracket 6 slidable on an upright support I and held adjust'ably by a set screw 8. Set'screw 9 clampsthe breaker head in position for driving. I I Atthe lower end ofshaft 2 is pulley l ll. eonheated by a belt H to apulley [2 of an electric motor I 3 whichmay be of any suitable type, pref erably an alternating currentmotor. which may beconnected to an ordinary 110 volt alternating aroundthesha-ft 2. A cylindrical shell 20 is slid- 10 ably mountedon the. flange. l-9 surrounding shaft 2. and has projecting from the. inner walls thereof aflangejt onwhich islaid out a protractor scale of 3609..

MountedIon. the shaft 2 is a bakel-ite disk 22 15.

positioned sothat its upper faceis substantially tfl1 J s h. wi th theprotractonscale. ofthe flange 21. 'Fh -e disk 2;. is keyed or otherwise fastened to the shaft 'L' to; be driven therewith. andhas at its peripheryaradial slit 23. I I I A neon tube 24s is mounted on the back. of the disk 22 and in; register with the slitv 2% so that whenthe. tube islighted. the slit 23 is illuminated. On'the under side. of. the disk 22- are distributor ringszda ndzfi. having brushes 21 and 28 contacting therewith-to.- supply current to the neon tube 24 I have illustrated only single brushes for each. tube but have found. that it is desirable to have two brushes for. each ring so that asteady glowing of l th e neon tube is assured when current is flowing. to theringgand thence. to the tube. It

would berpossible: to eliminate one of the brushes andground the. circuit of the tube through the bearings otshaftl but]; have ioundthat there is apt tape. some slight intermptionof the current which. rendersit' unsuitable for the testing use if this type otground is used. I

29 is a. tachometer to showthe speed of revolution of thebreaker mechanism 5.. In this instancethc tachometer is. driven. directly by the motor and; the motor drives the. distributor through a four to one ratio ofpulleys. It will be understood that revolutions per minute can b reoorded on the tachometer or that engine speed. couldbe recorded if desired.

The motor [3 is: providedwith a rheostat l4 shown 5. and a. reversing switch l5 also shown, connected to 110 volt, alternating current su ch asl the usual house supply lines. The transformer I! is connected in parallel with the motor and is; likewise. connected to the 110 volt,. alternating current, the current passing through; its. primary coil 30. The secondary coil jil I is{ o f a sumcient number of coils-to produce 2 v 7 about five hundred volts, although a smaller voltage could be produced.

I provide in series with the secondary of the transformer a rectifier tube 32 which may be of any desired type. I have found that a halfwave rectifier may be used. The details of this rectifier form no part of the invention and it need not be described in full.

The tell-tale lamp is run from the secondary of the transformer, as shown in the diagram, with about five volts. This current also goes to.

one filament S3 of the rectifier tube which is a v that there will not be bands of light caused also supplied with plates 34. I providefas shown at 35, means for connecting the breakermech- I'have fo und that in practice it is difi'icult to use a protractor marked in degrees because anism of the distributor iii serie'swith the rectifier and secondary of thetransformerand also in series with the neon tube 24. A condenser 36 is used to bridge the circuit 'of-the rectifier and the secondary of the transformer andforms a circuit in which the neon tube 24, the condenser 36 and the breaker mechanism 5 are in series circuit relationship, the operation of the device being that the condenser discharges through the breaker mechanism and-the tube when the rectifier is not delivering current to the tube and breaker mechanism. a

I place a resistor 31 which in this instance is about a five thousand ohm resistor to pre-' vent overtaxing of the neon tube 24. The rectifier used by me is the usualhalf-wave type and I have foundthat this is satisfactory if a condenser of a size to maintain'the uni-directional current through the tube and'breaker is used. If a full wave rectifier is used, a smaller condenser is possible. I do not wish to limit myself to any size of condenser other than to indicate that one'sufiicient to maintain a constant voltage of the uni-directional current isused.

In the operation of my d evice, the breaker mechanism 5 is 'mounted in the clamp Bland connected by clutch- 4 to the shaft 2. The condenser 38 of the breaker mechanism is disconnected, as shown in Fig. 2-andthe*connection 35 is connected to the pole 39 of the breaker mechanism. The other side of the breaker mechanism is grounded throughthe machine', as is indicated conventionally at-40,-see Fig. 5. The motor is then driven at a speed to drive the distributor at what compares to driving-speed. The disk 22 revolves" and as it revolves the breaker mechanism alternately turns on and shuts oh the neon tube 24 which, being rotatedgilluminates the rotating disk as shown'in- Fig. 4 fora'n eight cylinder engine or in Fig; 6 for a four cylinder engine, the parts indicated at'M" appearing- 1:0 be bands of light andthe parts 42 appearing dark. By adjusting the protractor scaleon the flange 2t by sliding Ith'e cylindrical shell 20 around the revolving disk, the-bands of light may be arranged to appearopposite 0} 45, etc. in a breaker for an eightbyli'nderengine, or -0, 90, etc. for a'four' cylinder fen gine 'as is well understood by those skilled the art. The length of timefth'at the breaker contacts or closes can be determined b y'the length" of the bands of light. This permits analysis of" the dwell of the points and is an indication of how well thezbreaker is functioning' 'to 'energize the primary coil of the sparkcoil'of the engine." All of this iswell known i'n the artanddoes not need description. My improvemem has made possible a more accurate stud y -of this condition becausejthe slit 23 is in substantiallythe same plane as the protra'ctor-sca'le' so that it is not necessary for one desiringa reading to be directly above the apparatus. In some former installations the neon tube is mounted in a plane different from and considerably removed from the plane of the protractor scale which leads to'inaccurate readings. In my apparatus I also produce a direct current for the neon tube, which, is essential in this type of testing, in a very cheap manner utilizing the ordinary alternating current with a very cheap and most .-efficient rectifying means, which not only rectifies the current but maintains it constant so by the wavering of the neon tube.

the mechanic operating the apparatus'has to do er or not the neon tube remains lighted for equal portions of the trip. I have also found that the breaker mechanism in various engines, must have different dwells, and to simplify the use of the apparatus- I provide a protractor ring l2l as shown in Fig. 8, in which segments I22 are colored to represent the pattern that the rotating neon lamp should makewhen the distributor to be tested is set properly. I have shown the segments colored red with the rest of thering black or any suitable color to indicate the portions where the neon tube-is not lighted. In use this ring is placed inside of the shell 20 on the flangeZl and is moved around until the colored segments 122 are in register with the pattern made by the rotating flashing neon tube. By a simple glance it is possible to tell 'whethe'r all lobes of the breaker cam are properly shaped or whether they have become worn. Itis also possible to tell whether the mechanism is properly set to give the proper length of make and break. ,7

Inpractice it is desirable to have the protractorsl2l representing: the various engines inost likely to be tested so that the operator merely has to select a disk to correspond with the engineof which the breaker mechanism is being tested. f 1 In" Fig-L 61 have shown the alternating colored segments on the protractor 2| on which the degrees from zero to 360 arelaid out along with the colored segments. r I I I have described' my invention in the embodiment preferred by'me and wish to claim the samebroadly as well as specifically, as pointed out inthe appended claims. 7

Having thus describedjmy invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

T '1'. In a device of the class described, the combination of a shaft, means for driving said driving said breaker mechanism from 'said'shaft,

' a certain amount of figuring to determine wheth-.

a disk mounted on said shaft to rotate therewith and below said means for supporting said breaker mechanism and having a narrow radial slit therein, a neon tube mounted on the back of said diskand in register with. said slit, a protractor scale around and substantially flush with the face of said disk, means for supporting said protractor scale, a source of current fornsaid tube, and means to connect the breaker mecha- 'nism of the distributor to be tested in circuit relationship with said source of current and'said "tube "to control theligh'tingof the tube by the make and break of the breaker mechanism of the distributor.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination of a rotatable disk having a narrow radial slit therein, means supporting said disk, a neon tube mounted on the back of said disk and in register with said slit, a protractor scale substantially flush with and around the face of said disk, means supporting said scale, means for mounting the breaker mechanism of a distributor to be tested above said disk andmeans for driving said breaker mechanism and for rotating the disk in synchronism with said breaker mechanism, means to supply current to said tube, and means to connect the breaker mechanism in circuit relationship with said source of current and said tube to control the lighting of the tube by the make and break of the breaker mechanism of the distributor.

3. In a device of the class described for testing breakers of distributors of internal combustion engines in which device the breaker to be tested is supported above a rotating disk and driven in synchronism with the disk, means for supporting the breaker mechanism to be tested, said rotatable disk having a narrow radial slit therein, means supporting said disk, a neon tube mounted on the lower side of said disk and in register with said slit, a protractor scale substantially flush with said disk, means supporting said scale, and means for lighting said tube under control of the breaker to be tested, and 5 means for rotating said disk.

4. In a unit of the class described for testing the breaker of a distributor of an internal combustion engine, the combination of a support for the breaker to be tested, a neon tube, means for supporting said neon tube for revolution about an axis, an alternating current motor for driving said breaker and for driving said neon tube supporting means in synchronism with said breaker, whereby said tube will revolve about said axis in synchronism with said breaker, a transformer, a rectifier, means to connect the breaker to be tested in series circuit relationship with said neon tube, said rectifier and the secondary of said transformer, and a condenser bridging the circuit of the rectifier and the secondary of the transformer to form a circuit in which said condenser and neon tube are in series circuit relationship with said breaker to be tested, whereby the operation of the breaker controls the lighting of the neon tube.

GERALD H. ALLEN. 

